


The Ring

by HipsBeforeHands1987



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-20
Updated: 2016-03-20
Packaged: 2018-05-28 00:39:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6306931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HipsBeforeHands1987/pseuds/HipsBeforeHands1987





	The Ring

thump thump thump- thump thump thump- thump thump thump

Scully tapped the tooth bitten pencil on the desk over and over. Her head was running a million times a minute. was 12:45pm. ‘Wasn’t it 12:30 about 4 hours ago?’ she wondered internally.

“Damnit” she hissed under her breath opening Mulder’s top desk drawer. The metal squeak along with smell of barbecue sunflower seeds were doing nothing for her intense hangover. She reached her left hand into the back of the drawer desperate to find a bottle of aspirin or even a rogue pill rolling around. She couldn’t find anything.

Withdrawing her hand angrily, it caught the metal hinge on the top of the drawer.

“Shit” she yelled, examining her reddened hand under the natural light which streaming into the office from the windows above.

The ring was intact, the flawless diamond unharmed. Scully’s finger on the other hand, had seen better days.

“Morning, partner!” Mulder exclaimed from their office door. He walked into the room with a quick stride, tossed his brief case onto the desk and went straight to Scully, where she sat in his chair. “Didja miss me?” he asked as he bent down planting a kiss on her lips.

“Mmm Mulder” she said pushing his chest with her right hand, her left, buried between her thighs. “Not here…”

He pulled back with a slight smirk and examined her face. “What’s wrong Scully? Ya know, if this place is bugged, they caught a lot more than just a kiss last month”

She could feel the blood draining from her face. It was the opposite reaction than what she usually had when thinking about said event.

“Scully, are you ok? You don’t look so good.” Mulder immediately became serious, crouching down to be at eye level with her.

“I’m fine Mulder” she began, immediately regretting her choice of words because they never fooled him. “Actually I have a splitting headache, I didn’t get a good night’s sleep.”

“I’m sorry” Mulder started walking to his briefcase.

Once his back was turned, Scully immediately spun the diamond ring around on her left ring finger so that only the band would be visible to him as long as she kept her palms down. The band was thin and silver, she hopped he would not notice.

“Here” Mulder said shaking a bottle of aleve in his hand like a maraca. “A man of 40 with such a physical job never leaves home without it. 

She smiled appreciatively taking the bottle from Mulder, careful to use her right hand.

“Thank you Mulder. I was just searching for this in your drawer” she said.

“Little snoop” he responded playfully.

The acid in her stomach began to churn and she could feel her palms begin to sweat.

“Have you been home yet, or did you come straight here?” She asked attempting to make conversation.

“Came straight from the airport. I was hoping to only use a half a day’s leave today.” He said, sitting on the edge of the desk.

“Not like you don’t have an abundance of time saved up, Mulder”

“True, but cleaning out my dead mother’s house is hardly a vacation” He said, becoming more distant.

“I’m sorry” Scully said, lowering her eyes to her lap. “I can only imagine how hard that was”.

“Actually, it was kind of cathartic” Mulder said. “I thought I would want to get as far away from family memories as I could, just … torch the place… so to speak. Once I started going through old pictures and heirlooms, I realized I am really glad I didn’t pay that company to come clean the place out for me. It made me realize, that although mine is certainly fucked up, family is still important to me.” 

Scully looked up at him and couldn’t help but smile. Their romantic relationship, although still young by some standards, felt old and comfortable. She knew that Mulder’s idea of family meant her. And she knew that it meant a lot more than just a sperm donor and recipient. She felt awful.

“That’s uh, nice, Mulder.” She said bluntly lifting the bottle of pills from the desk. “I’m going to go to the water fountain to wash these down and use the rest room. The latest reports from Skinner are in this pile and the expense reports I’ve balanced are over here. Wherever you want to start is fine, I left off with the Simmons case.” She said standing up, placing her left forearm behind her. “I’ll be back in a few.”

Mulder stepped down from his perch on the desk, still hovering almost a foot above her. He placed his hands on her shoulders and planted a kiss on her forehead. “I love you, Scully. It’s nice to be home.”

She softened slightly, his love meant everything to her, she felt awful, and guilty. She looked up at him wearily and softly said “Its nice to have you home”. She buried her head against his chest for a brief moment then walked to the door.

xxxxxxxx 

After downing the two aleve, Scully walked into the restroom and towards the sink. Looking into the mirror she began reasoning with herself.

‘Just tell him Dana, its Mulder. He will be mad at you, but you love him. Just tell him. I know it’s embarrassing, Dana, but you love him. He loves you. He will forgive you.’

She splashed cold water on her face and then ran her left hand under the icy faucet in an attempt to shrink the size of her finger.

‘What the fuck?’

The ring was NOT coming off. 

After a half gallon of cheap FBI soap and about $60 in the water budget, Scully walked back to the office. 

“Are you sure you are OK Scully? You could always head home and I could meet you later with some soup or tea or something.”

Scully considered his suggestion. ‘I could go to the ER, have them cut the ring off, and meet Mulder for dinner. He wouldn’t know, well, he would eventually find out but not like this, not now.’ Her options were limited ‘Wait, what am I thinking, I can go down to forensics and have them do it for me… no, they will ask questions. Nobody can know about this’

“No, Mulder. I’m really ok, once these pills kick in I will be as good as new.”

By 5pm the agents had completed a whole month’s worth of expense reports and finished the last 4 of their case reports.

“What do you say, Scully? Chinese?” Mulder broke the silence. “I found a collection of old movies at the Cape Cod house and thought maybe we could get some takeout and watch a couple movies tonight. 

“That sounds great Mulder, why don’t you grab the food and I will meet you at your place.”

“Uh, Scully…” Mulder said looking shy. “I haven’t been home in a few days and my house is probably a disaster. I wouldn’t want to subject you to all that. Your place would be much more…”

“No” Scully said abruptly, knowing that going to his apartment was absolutely essential. “I love your place Mulder. I’ll run along ahead of you and give it a quick spruce.”

This was odd, but Mulder didn’t think much of it. “Ok, See you there”

xxxxxxxxxx

(one day earlier)

Sprinkling the tetra-feed into the tank, Scully watched as the particles dispersed and the fish pushed up to the top of the tank, enthusiastically gulping down the food. She sat in front of the tank, mesmerized by the fish and their movement around the water. She felt like a fish sometimes, like her life was always on display, shrouded by nothing in particular and encased only in a thin layer of glass that could shatter at any time.

‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ she thought. This was a saying she could only hear in her fathers voice. 

Well they hadn’t killed her, and after seven years of fighting the shadow men and their secret agenda, she was stronger.

Her relationship with Mulder, and its new facet, made he feel like they were an even stronger force to be reckoned with.

That was not to say that there weren’t hardships. Mulder had recently lost his mother, and was now faced with the unenviable task of cataloguing her effects and emotional family heirlooms, a job that had been taking months longer than he had hoped.

Immediately after her death, Scully traveled to cape cod with Mulder to start the process. As it turned out, not only did Teena have a house full of furniture, but also, a garage, attic, and storage shed of various items.

Mulder had set aside a bassinette and a full bedroom set for an unknown baby.

“I want you to have this.” he had said to Scully, during their last attempt at IVF. “That is, of course, unless Maggie has one she wants you to use. The grandmother should have that privilege”

She remembered the look in his eyes when she said that Teena was also a grandmother. She had explained there, in the haunted house of memories, that Mulder was much more than just a sperm donor to her, and that she wanted to raise the baby together, if he was agreeable.

He had paraded all over cape cod that week looking for baby clothes, toys, and other affects. 

It was the following weeks that they had found out their last attempt had failed.

The next weekend, when they visited the cape the baby items had all been gone. Scully assumed that Mulder had donated it all to avoid the awkward conversations.

As the fish had finished their dinner, Scully rose from her spot on the side of the couch and took a good look around the apartment.

It was a mess. There were dishes in the sink, clean laundry unfolded the foot of the unmade bed, and bottles of beer and wine on the coffee table. She could not remember the last time they had spent the night here but assumed it had been at least a week. The place was starting to smell.

Removing her jacket, Scully began to clean. She washed all the dishes, took out the trash, and polished all the surfaces for what she assumed was likely the first time they had been touched. Once the place was organized to her liking, she was exhausted. She opened the fridge to find a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc she had brought over weeks ago. They hadn’t touched it because they had been too busy touching one another. 

Turning on the nightly news Scully uncorked the bottle and began to drink it. After two glasses, she began to feel re-invigorated. She walked into the bedroom and started to fold the clothes. After they were all neatly folded and placed in their respective drawers, Scully became curious. She sifted through Mulder’s CD collection. It was a typical late 30’s male collection. 80s hits, some U2, some Police, a few newer artists. Scully made a mental note to joke about his Lilith Fair album. 

She threw on a CD of a band that she had never heard of and began to look around more. She had known Mulder for many years, she knew him inside and out, she understood his mind, his body, his soul. The fabric of his being was sewn in with hers. Yet she didn’t really have a clue for how the man lived.

She opened his closet and began snooping. She wasn’t looking for anything in particular, maybe some old photos, a high school yearbook, and embarrassing t-shirt collection. 

She found a large liquor store box in the front of his closet and opened it, only feeling the slightest bit intrusive, but slightly more tipsy. The box was from a DC liquor store, she assumed the effects were recently obtained from his mothers home.

Inside the box she indeed found an old yearbook with a handsome looking young Fox Mulder and an abundance of female signatures, a few old textbooks, and then, in the back of the box, a bag marked “Scully”.

Curious, she opened the bag only to find a few items, first, a silver baby rattle inside a blue silken bag, next, photos of a small baby, all marked “Fox, 1961-1962”, and last, a black velvet box with a diamond ring inside.

Scully stopped, stunned, holding the ring box up to the light. The ring was exquisite, a thin silver band with a large round diamond in the middle and two smaller diamonds flanking each side. She was sure the ring was expensive. Scully never imagined herself with such a fancy ring. She considered herself more of a diamond solitaire kind of girl, simple and classic. However, she could not refuse herself the pleasure of taking the gem from the box and slipping it onto her finger.

The ring was tight around her knuckle. Scully had small fingers, she guessed that the ring had to have been a mere size 2. This ring would not have fit Teena Mulder. It could have been hers from a younger age, or it could have been her or Bill’s mother’s.

Scully admired the ring on her finger. Adjusting her hand under Mulder’s bedroom light to observe all the facets. Many moons ago, Scully imagined being a bride, but that image had faded over the years. Even when she imagined herself a mother, she never really imagined herself becoming a bride. She considered herself as traditional as her own mother. 

Then it hit her. Did Mulder intend on giving her this ring?

Immediately, the guilt of invading Mulder’s private space hit her and she had to get out of his bedroom. As she went to remove the ring, she realized it was stuck. She tugged and pulled until her finger was reddened. She ran into the kitchen to get some soap and olive oil. Neither would allow the ring to budge.

Panic began to set in. How was she going to hide this from him? She carefully put all his effects back into the closet and ran to the freezer. She stuck her hand inside and closed the door as much as her arm would allow. Finishing the rest of the wine, her mind began to race. She could cut the ring off, but how would she explain the severed ring to Mulder? She withdrew her hand from the freezer only to find that the ring still would not budge. Inside the freezer was a half empty bottle of Jack Daniels. Scully poured herself a small glass and went to the couch to map out a plan of action.

She had nothing, so she poured another glass, and the next thing she knew, it was 4am, her mouth was dry as cotton and she was freezing cold, asleep on Mulder’s couch.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

She arrived at his apartment first, She was terrified of letting him be alone in his own apartment She didn't want him to come across the missing ring and try to call the police. She knew she had to tell him, she didn’t know how.

She remembered a trick she had seen in the ER while in her residency. You had to take a shoestring, wrap it around your finger, above the ring until you had compressed the finger enough to slide the ring off. She hadn’t remembered the technique having a high success rate but she was desperate. She began frantically searching Mulder’s closet for the thinnest shoestring.

‘Damnit, Dana’ She thought. ‘Snooping got you into this mess in the first place’. 

Finally she found a string and began removing it from a pair of running shoes. She started below the knuckle and wrapped the string higher along her digit. Only the top was exposed and it was an awful shade of purple and red. It was so painful she wanted to scream as she began to slide the ring up, millimeter by millimeter. Approaching the knuckle, the ring would not complete its ascent. 

Scully let out a loud wail and used her right thumb and index finger to pluck the ring off in a violent action. The ring went flying across the room and behind the night stand.

As Scully quickly removed the lace from her finger she ran to the night stand and moved it. There was an air vent behind the solid piece of furniture

“No no no no no” she repeated like a mantra. “Please God, NO!”

Finally, looking slightly behind the bed, she saw the beautiful ring glistening on the floor.

Picking it up she kissed the ring and then ran to the closet to place it back in its rightful spot, secured in a box, inside a bag, inside a box, inside the closet of Fox Mulder. 

She secured the packaging and ran to the living room just in time for Mulder to come home with a bag full of Chinese food and two bottles of wine.

“Hi!” She exclaimed uncharacteristically, jumping up from the couch. 

“Hey.” Said Mulder somewhat suspiciously. “Headache better?” 

“Loads” she responded. “Starving”.

“Good” said Mulder. “I got our usual, plus egg rolls. Also, I thought I’d stop at the liquor store and pick up some wine” he said opening the fridge “That’s funny. I swore there was a bottle of white in here when I left last weekend.” 

Scully shrugged her shoulders innocently. “No, actually, I thought we finished that last time we spend the night here.”

“Oh well.” Mulder responded, walking to the living room and placing the bags on the coffee table. He turned to Scully who finally took both hands placing both on either side of his face. She planted a kiss firmly on his mouth.

“It’s good to have you home, partner.”


End file.
